Wednesday, June 01, 2016

Bob Shrum on how to beat Trump

The list of presidential candidates that Bob Shrum worked for is so lengthy that he has become a legend: John Lindsay, Edmund Muskie, George McGovern, Ted Kennedy, Michael Dukakis, Bob Kerrey, Al Gore, and John Kerry.
Shrum has come up with a way to defeat Donald Trump in November, according to David Catanese of US News and World Report:

Not dissimilar to the onslaught against Romney and his time at Bain, Trump is likely to confront scathing reprisals of his own failed business deals and real estate endeavors that left ordinary people on the hook, all while he tried to line his own pockets.

"It'll be how he treats workers and it will matter to independents," says Bob Shrum, an adviser to the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Al Gore. "People have some sense of the stuff about women; to be reminded of it is useful. I think that's only the first stage. I think people don't know much about his business record at all."

But in an environment in which Trump can command or, more crucially, redirect a news cycle with a single series of late-night tweets, generating a consistently resonant line of attack on the airwaves will be a challenge to anyone attempting to leave a mark on The Donald.

Don't laugh. He may be onto something. After having had his nose bloodied in eight fruitless campaigns spanning four decades, Shrum may be onto something.

Trump's election in November may look inevitable, but it will require Trump to maintain attention to his task. He may wish to read up on the Tortoise and the Hare.

If the Establishment Republicans were doing their job you would've thought that they would have been able to parade a bunch of people who have been left in the lurch economically speaking by Trump. But on the other hand there may actually be few of these who actually exist. Besides, most of the people who would've lost money in losing ventures would be bankers or venture capitalists, not exactly the kind of people that the public would have much sympathy for. This isn't like Bain, where Romney was going around trying to rescue companies by downsizing and outsourcing. If someone got fired by Trump chances are they weren't gotten rid of like ballast out of a balloon, but because they weren't doing their jobs.

Trump could not possibly have treated his workers any worse than the many rumors about how poorly Hillary treated hers. Two can play that particular nasty game. And if it comes down to the financial dirt on Donald's many enterprises, just remember he can hire an army of forensic auditors to go through the books and tax filings of the Clinton Family Foundation with a microscope. There's plenty of political gold waiting to be mined in the shady dealings of the Clintons.

Romney was vulnerable to irrelevant attacks about trivial things at Bain because there was no overwhelming reason to vote FOR Romney; so the little crap could add up. However, there are several very good reasons to vote for Trump; attacks about trivia won't outweigh those reasons.

And Shrum probably thought it was a Good Idea to get Dukakis in that tank with the Toys R Us helmet, making him look like the biggest geek nerd in the history of earth. Riiight, Bob. Another great call, you idiot.

FAKE NEWS FOLLIES OF 2017

Total Pageviews

Followers

Blog Archive

About Me

I live in Poca, West Virginia, with my lovely wife of 40 years, Lou Ann. I am an Army veteran and Cleveland State graduate. I retired after 40 years as a newspaperman. In 2016, I published "Trump the Press," which drew rave reviews at Power Line and Instapundit.